UES School Building Closes Due To Coronavirus Cases

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side school building was shut down on Friday after multiple coronavirus cases were reported there starting last week, according to the Department of Education.

East Side Middle School on East 91st Street will be closed for 24 hours, after COVID-19 cases were confirmed in three separate classrooms, according to the DOE's map of active closures.

The first case was confirmed last Friday, forcing the school to close a single classroom for two week, as is required by the DOE's safety protocols. At least one more case was confirmed in a different classroom on Tuesday, followed by another on Thursday.

That triggered an automatic 24-hour closure of the school building starting Friday, which the DOE requires when there are at least two cases from different classrooms from an activity or exposure within school.

East Side Middle was one of 23 school buildings around the city that were closed due to positive tests as of Monday, according to the DOE map. Buildings are forced to close for a full two weeks when cases are confirmed in separate classrooms and the link between them cannot be determined.

Through Friday, more than 1,000 public school students and staff had tested positive for COVID-19 since students began returning for in-person classes in late September, according to the city's map.

The city's own testing regimen for public schools has yielded a surprisingly low number of positive tests, which officials have touted as evidence that reopening has gone smoothly so far.

Check the full map of active cases here.